For the first time in 10 months, I find myself in the Travel Void; that is, I have absolutely nothing on the agenda or even anything in the pipeline for a trip in coming days, weeks, months. It's an odd feeling. There's nothing to research, nothing to look forward to, nothing to dream of packing up and taking off for. Yet after the last few months, there is something grounding about being home again and not leaving the suitcase open and at the ready on the floor of my bedroom.
The insanity of my most recent travel schedule started with trips to follow Morrissey to Brooklyn, Atlantic City, Reading, PA and Port Chester, NY. Some of those places weren't necessarily tourist destinations, indeed we managed to only play tourist in Brooklyn, but still they were parts of the country we'd not seen before.
About 3 weeks after Port Chester, I was off on safari to Tanzania for two weeks. A mere 5 days after returning from Africa, I was off to Los Angeles for one weekend, followed by San Francisco for the next long weekend, ostensibly to follow Morrissey again, but his health allowed him to only show up for the first of those weekends. With concert tickets fully refunded for other shows we'd booked, we still had airfare to Chicago and San Francisco for Morrissey's shows in March and late April, so we decided to carry on in Chicago for another long weekend, and change the San Francisco trip to Los Angeles for 5 days. Somewhere in there we did a road trip to NYC for some serious museum going.
Now just recovering from jetlag from LA last weekend, I'm settling back into life without anticipation. For the moment it feels good. I'm recovering from a cold that I was stupid enough to fly with. All my "travel stuff" is safely stowed back in the closet and I'm done going through photos and tallying the damage in my checkbook. For now, I'm reveling in sleeping in my own bed tonight. And tomorrow night. And all of this week. It's good to be home. I logged about 34,000 air miles in the first 5 months of this year. Good glory, that's a record for me.
That's not to say I'm not getting itchy. I'm ready to go back to Africa and kicking ideas for that around in my head. Any trip to get me there is tempting, so seeing good deals on Facebook is really starting to wear me down. As in, going in the fall. I'd prefer to "do it right" and go back for two weeks next year but the lure is becoming hard to deny. I also am feeling the urge to go back to Amsterdam, which might make the most sense for a quickish (non-budget busting) trip this fall and save up for safari in 2014. I have enough miles on United for a free ticket anywhere in Europe, and going back to someplace I know well would make a longish weekend very doable. But I also am somewhat curious about Oslo after the Munch exhibition we saw in NYC. And then there's the possibility that Morrissey may tour again this fall. If he does, I'd at the very least like to see the Northeast and mid Atlantic shows. Not sure if I'd commit to airfare for him again. Spoiled for choice, I suppose. I'm going to sit tight until June and see how things progress.
For now, I'll relish the homebody life. For now.
